Amid the persistent African Swine Fever (ASF) and shortage in hogs supply in the country, San Miguel Corporation (SMC), through its food unit San Miguel Foods (SMF), announced it is rationalizing its Monterey business by transferring its nationwide hog inventory to local raisers.

In a statement, SMC said this move will allow local raisers to supply the requirements of their respective regions and help strengthen biosecurity practices among smallholder farmers. SMC has hog farms all over the country through San Miguel Foods, Inc. (SMFI), which sells meat products under the Purefoods and Monterey brands.

“This is one way to stabilize the supply of affordable pork in the country.  More importantly, it will help boost the local hog raising industry.  They can run this business at a lower cost, making it more sustainable. This also opens the doors for more Filipinos to become agri-entrepreneurs,” said SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang said. 

SMC Media Affairs Group Head Mary Jane Llanes emphasized that the company Monterey is not shutting down its operations despite the move to transform its hog inventory to local raisers.

“We are just making Monterey more efficient by focusing on the hog business of Monterey of which we are looking to transfer our hog inventory to potential buyers preferably smallholders farmers and existing contract growers, but not closing it,” said Llanes.

Monterey also has investments in feed milling, breeding, livestock raising, slaughtering, meat retailing, and meat processing technology. It has farms in Bulacan, Tarlac, and Pampanga, all of which were badly hit by ASF.

As bans on the transportation of pork and pork products remain in place across the country due to the ASF, Monterey, a national player, has found the situation challenging, which made it decide to shift gears and transfer inventories to local raisers.

ASF, a fatal animal disease among hogs, has so far resulted in the death and culling of more than 500,000 hogs in the country.

Its persistence has also caused some hog raisers to either cut down or suspend their production and shift to other livelihoods.

The Department of Agriculture (DA), for its part, has already set aside P1 billion for nationwide hog re-population program.

The tightness in hog supply in Luzon, the most badly hit by the animal disease, is one of the main reasons why the price of pork in Metro Manila and nearby areas rose to unprecedented levels over the past weeks.

As of Tuesday, the price of pork stood at P270 to P300 per kilogram (/kg) at select markets in Metro Manila. Pre-ASF, the price of pork only averaged from P190/kg to P200/kg.